An every day account of a small racing yard and the highs and lows....

Monday, 10 December 2012

Oh dear - Christopher was doing really well but fell off when contesting the lead - (he told me to say that and it sounds so much better than just 'fell off'!) But to be fair to him both him and DD were flying but sadly, the horse got in a bit short, rapped the fence and the inevitable happened - in front of the crowd again! Christopher got to his feet with a big smile on his face as Definite Dawn had given him such a fantastic feel, and DD loved it and continued on, jumping all the fences happily on his own, so both horse and jockey are here to fight another day, oh and the horse won best turned out, so well done Laura and Celia who plaited his tail.
Dancer also had an incident packed race - She settled beautifully, was jumping like a stag and lying in third place when she passed us on the second circuit and then went out of sight down into the dip, when she reappeared she had dropped to the rear of the field - jumped one more fence but then Toby pulled her up four fences from home - we were very disappointed as she has shown a lot of promise at home and we thought there must be something seriously wrong. However, it transpired that there was a nasty incident at the fence we couldn't see, where the favourite, Moscow Tiger sadly broke down approaching the fence, the jockey took evasive action, because he obviously didn't want to jump but took Dancer out with him, it was astonishing that she escaped unscathed as she very nearly went through the wings.
We still had a great party with the 'Christoper Padfield fan club' and had a great day with seriously good competitive racing.
Both horses fine today and we are hoping to hunt a few tomorrow weather permitting...

About Me

Pauline has been race riding her own horses in point to points for 15 years and is now training with Doug. Pauline has recently got her trainers permit. They are both passionate about National Hunt racing and achieving maximum potential from their horses in the best possible way. This is why ‘Equine Fitness’ is a very exciting new business for them.
In 2006 Doug eventually plucked up the courage (it only took 7 years!) to propose to Pauline whilst they were on holiday in the Maldives and they married in the Lake District in June 2007.